Jesse wrote:This is the first time I've ever seen a players exhaustion rate directly correlated to how tired he looked during an interview rather than on the ice.

Frankly, I am stunned and I have no rebuttal.

OK here is a rebuttal

Letang was at the end of a shift on one of his fights and he fought a CBJ guy that came off the bench. If Letang were exhausted by the allegedly substandard CEC ice, he wouldn't have won his fight so decisively after taking a long shift on allegedly poor ice.

The CEC ice actually made him fresher than any other arena because guys always get pounded if they are fighting at the end of a shift when their opponent comes off the bench.

Jesse wrote:This is the first time I've ever seen a players exhaustion rate directly correlated to how tired he looked during an interview rather than on the ice.

Frankly, I am stunned and I have no rebuttal.

OK here is a rebuttal

Letang was at the end of a shift on one of his fights and he fought a CBJ guy that came off the bench. If Letang were exhausted by the allegedly substandard CEC ice, he wouldn't have won his fight so decisively after taking a long shift on allegedly poor ice.

The CEC ice actually made him fresher than any other arena because guys always get pounded if they are fighting at the end of a shift when their opponent comes off the bench.

Actually, I think the other player was already exhausted having to skate from the bench to Letang on the crappy ice. This made the fight more even as both players were already exhausted.

• Many of the Penguins have expressed disappointment with the ice surface at Consol Energy Center, but there aren't any problems with their practice ice. Captain Sidney Crosby called the Iceoplex ice surface "great." Of course, the Southpointe rink doesn't double as a concert site and is kept extremely cold. "Hopefully the new ice will get better," Crosby said.

• Many of the Penguins have expressed disappointment with the ice surface at Consol Energy Center, but there aren't any problems with their practice ice. Captain Sidney Crosby called the Iceoplex ice surface "great." Of course, the Southpointe rink doesn't double as a concert site and is kept extremely cold. "Hopefully the new ice will get better," Crosby said.

Thanks for posting. Sometimes when you post the truth on here, a few people like to take potshots for whatever reason. Anyway . . . yes, Sid, we all hope the ice gets better.

shmenguin wrote:i'm not sure why it was such a crime for the OP to question the quality of the ice, so i'm glad that blurb popped up

It wasn't a crime. It was more loling because she asked the question and then answered herself right after asking it.

Jasmine wrote:When the Pens opened camp, the CEC ice was not good with speculation that it was due to a concert just days before. This is a "state-of-the-art" building in which perfect ice should be the major priority, no? Should we be worring about this?

The ice wasn't great because of the concert days before. I suspect that the ice will be much better when the season starts and the concerts become less frequent during the season.

I didn't read through the entire thread, but they cheaped out on the pipes that they used for the ice. Instead of running the pipes the width of the ice, they ran them the length of the ice, which provides less cooling for the ice.

louie wrote:I didn't read through the entire thread, but they cheaped out on the pipes that they used for the ice. Instead of running the pipes the width of the ice, they ran them the length of the ice, which provides less cooling for the ice.

Yeah, I have a hard time believing this as well. As involved as the team was with the oversight and design of the arena, I have a hard time believing they would "cheap out" on the most important aspect of the building. You don't allow 300+ million to be spent, yet cheap out in an area that can potentially injure some of the most talented players in a generation. I would assume and trust that they would seek to protect their investments, and not risk them by "cheaping" out on the ice.

somebody somewhere should not be sleeping very well at night... how difficult is it in the year 2010 to make a 1 inch thick layer of ice... perhaps if the ice was sponsored by some corporation then this would not happen... maybe nobody knows where the damn thermostat is in the coal mine... i expected the first comments from any of the players was to be how great the ice was for 300M... and they got slush... i would not doubt that some company from philly installed the ice... or the same company that installed the turf at heinz field... h2o + cold = ice

• Many of the Penguins have expressed disappointment with the ice surface at Consol Energy Center, but there aren't any problems with their practice ice. Captain Sidney Crosby called the Iceoplex ice surface "great." Of course, the Southpointe rink doesn't double as a concert site and is kept extremely cold. "Hopefully the new ice will get better," Crosby said.

That right there is the problem. They're practicing on this great ice -- when they try to implement all the pretty passing plays they were able to perfect on good ice, they fail and lose games

I've seen too many passes bouncing off sticks and it's killing a lot of scoring chances, maybe there is something to it. Too many passes on the power play are taking that extra half second to settle down, and that half second is enough for the lanes to close. We're going to need a road trip to find out.

I thought the CEC was noticeably colder last night, sitting in the stands. Not sure if that was due to the relatively colder outside temps or if they've cranked up the cooling in an effort to improve the ice surface.